At the weekend I nipped into the wonderful Pitfield store / cafe / gallery space in Hoxton, East London and had a look at the second phase of the current Designersblock exhibition. If you’ve not been to Pitfield yet, I highly recommend you check it out whether the current exhibition is still running or not as it’s always worth a visit.
Pitfield is a well thought out creative store space; it’s a colourful, inspiring environment which sells a mix of brilliantly selected vintage and new homewares alongside a small gallery area, which often showcases the work of new designers. You’ll be pleased to find that the goods on offer aren’t overpriced, as is the case with too many homeware stores, especially in London. Pitfield also has a fantastic cafe serving tasty cakes and coffee, fresh salads, homemade lasagnes and chicken pie amongst other delicious snacks and meals, as well as a florist in the entrance. It’s always a nice, buzzy atmosphere, more like the atmosphere at a great vintage market, which is a refreshing change from the stuffy atmosphere you find in many ‘designer vintage’ homeware stores.
Designersblock at Pitfield
Designersblock is an organisation that showcases the best emerging work from the world of product design, architecture and illustration at installations, exhibitions and events that they curate not just in London and the UK but internationally too. Their displays are artistically curated and the work they showcase is always inspiring and of a very high standard – they have their finger on the pulse of new design and manage to reveal the very best of what the creative world has to offer.
Designersblock at Pitfield
The gallery space at Pitfield is fairly small so the current exhibition doesn’t reveal the full breadth of what Designersblock exhibitions often show, but it nevertheless includes some very strong work from a variety of emerging product designers which is in keeping with the retro / vintage vibe that Pitfield offers; it adds a natural extension to what Pitfield sell in their shop. Highlights for me include the beautiful Emerald Faerie “Triffid’ and ‘Birds of Paradise’ lighting designs (hanging lights shown below against a backdrop of House of Hackney wallpaper) and the Sabatina Leccia colourful recycled glassware.
Designersblock at Pitfield
The quirky Camilla Barnard window display is pretty brilliant too, featuring hand-drawn decorative models of everyday objects such as an iron, a washing machine and a microwave. A great little installation.
The Pitfield shop is open from 11am – 7pm while the cafe is open from 7am – 7pm, Monday – Sunday. Designersblock at Pitfield is open 11am – 7pm until 21st March.
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